Keeping Cosmetic Surgery Safe

There has been a chain of tragic stories in the news lately about unqualified practitioners offering plastic surgery procedures with dire results. Statistically, plastic surgery is very safe… if performed by a plastic surgeon. If your neighbor wants to give you liposuction in his garage with his new Dyson upright, you forfeit the guarantee of relative safety. As insane as that scenario may sound, those of you following the news may have realized that very often common sense does not prevail but Dyson-wielding maniacs do.

Most recently, Elena Caro of Las Vegas lost her life after handing it over to two Columbian nationals who were performing surgeries in the back room of their tile business. Not to make light of a horrific event, but this woman’s death could have easily been avoided had she sought services at, let’s say… a plastic surgeon’s office, rather than a tile store.

Even dentists are getting in on plastic surgery, with many offering facelifts after taking a short course on the procedure. There’s nothing wrong with a little friendly competition, but we think that if you want to perform plastic surgery, you ought to become a plastic surgeon first.

New Jersey lawmakers seem to agree, as there is currently pending legislation in that state that would limit what dentists can do and where on the patient’s face they can do it.

We hope this catches on around the country and in California especially. We pledge to remain within our scope of practice, and leave the rest to those best suited to provide great care for you!